Hernandez got aggressive at club days before killing, woman says

March 19: Kasey Arma testifies in the murder trial of former New England Patriots football player Aaron Hernandez, in Fall River, Mass.
(AP)

FALL RIVER, Mass. – A woman testified Thursday in the murder trial of former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez that he abruptly became aggressive and agitated at a club two nights before the killing.

Hernandez is on trial for the June 17, 2013, killing of Odin Lloyd, who was dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancee.

Hernandez and Lloyd went to Rumor nightclub in Boston early on June 15. Prosecutors have said Hernandez left the club angry.

Kasey Arma testified that she saw Hernandez there that night and that he tapped her hip to get her attention. She said she at first ignored him, then turned around to talk. She had seen him about a half dozen times before at the club.

He told her his name was Rock and asked her to dance, she said. They danced for about five to 10 minutes, and he left abruptly in the middle of the song, telling her he would be right back, she said.

When he came back about 10 minutes later, she said, his demeanor was very aggressive. He grabbed her arm and brought her next to the main door and told her to dance, she said.

"Kind of told me, `Show me what you can do with that thing,' referring to my back end," Arma testified.

The judge struck her comment from the record.

Arma said he was acting differently than in their earlier dance.

"His whole demeanor was just very different: very on edge, aggressive and kind of arrogant," she said.

A video played by Hernandez's lawyers showed her grinding against him next to the doorway, them occasionally talking, then the two going their separate ways.

Arma said she did not want to dance with him anymore because he was too aggressive.

On questioning from Hernandez's lawyer Michael Fee, she acknowledged that she wanted to pump up her own ego by talking to Hernandez and said after that night, she did not like him.

"I don't like his arrogance," she said.

Also Thursday, Hernandez lawyer James Sultan aggressively went after footprint evidence in the case, questioning how it was collected and matched with shoes Hernandez was shown on video wearing that night.

Sultan raised questions about how photos were taken of a footprint found near Lloyd's body that Massachusetts State Police Lt. Steven Bennett testified matched the pattern of the kind of shoe Hernandez was wearing. Bennett also acknowledged that before he made the match, he knew a colleague wanted him to link the print with Hernandez.

The judge on Thursday received separate juror notes, one as the morning session began and a second after lunch. Court resumed both times after a brief pause to discuss the notes with lawyers and Hernandez. She privately questioned a juror after receiving the second note. The judge did not disclose the contents of either note.